The present invention is a method and an apparatus for applying a coating to a substrate, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for applying both a kinetic spray coating and a thermal spray coating from the same nozzle.
A new technique for producing coatings on a wide variety of substrate surfaces by kinetic spray, or cold gas dynamic spray, was recently reported in articles by T. H. Van Steenkiste et al., entitled xe2x80x9ckinetic Spray Coatings,xe2x80x9d published in Surface and Coatings Technology, vol. 111, pages 62-71, Jan. 10, 1999 and xe2x80x9cAluminum coatings via kinetic spray with relatively large powder particlesxe2x80x9d published in Surface and Coatings Technology 154, pages 237-252, 2002. The articles discuss producing continuous layer coatings having low porosity, high adhesion, low oxide content and low thermal stress. The articles describe coatings being produced by entraining metal powders in an accelerated air stream, through a converging-diverging de Laval type nozzle and projecting them against a target substrate. The particles are accelerated in the high velocity air stream by the drag effect. The air used can be any of a variety of gases including air or helium. It was found that the particles that formed the coating did not melt or thermally soften prior to impingement onto the substrate. It is theorized that the particles adhere to the substrate when their kinetic energy is converted to a sufficient level of thermal and mechanical deformation. Thus, it is believed that the particle velocity must be high enough to exceed the yield stress of the particle to permit it to adhere when it strikes the substrate. It was found that the deposition efficiency of a given particle mixture was increased as the inlet air temperature was increased. Increasing the inlet air temperature decreases its density and increases its velocity. The velocity varies approximately as the square root of the inlet air temperature. The actual mechanism of bonding of the particles to the substrate surface is not fully known at this time. It is believed that the particles must exceed a critical velocity prior to their being able to bond to the substrate. The critical velocity is dependent on the material of the particle and to a lesser degree on the material of the substrate. It is believed that the initial particles to adhere to a substrate have broken the oxide shell on the substrate material permitting subsequent metal to metal bond formation between plastically deformed particles and the substrate. Once an initial layer of particles has been formed on a substrate subsequent particles bind not only to the voids between previous particles bound to the substrate but also engage in particle to particle bonds. The bonding process is not due to melting of the particles in the air stream because while the temperature of the air stream may be above the melting point of the particles, due to the short exposure time the particles are never heated to a temperature above their melt temperature. This feature is considered critical because the kinetic spray process allows one to deposit particles onto a surface with out a phase transition.
This work improved upon earlier work by Alkimov et al. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,414, issued Apr. 12, 1994. Alkimov et al. disclosed producing dense continuous layer coatings with powder particles having a particle size of from 1 to 50 microns using a supersonic spray.
The Van Steenkiste articles reported on work conducted by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) and by the Delphi Research Labs to improve on the earlier Alkimov process and apparatus. Van Steenkiste et al. demonstrated that Alkimov""s apparatus and process could be modified to produce kinetic spray coatings using particle sizes of greater than 50 microns.
The modified process and apparatus for producing such larger particle size kinetic spray continuous layer coatings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,139,913, and 6,283,386. The process and apparatus described provide for heating a high pressure air flow and combining this with a flow of particles. The heated air and particles are directed through a de Laval-type nozzle to produce a particle exit velocity of between about 300 m/s (meters per second) to about 1000 m/s. The thus accelerated particles are directed toward and impact upon a target substrate with sufficient kinetic energy to impinge the particles to the surface of the substrate. The temperatures and pressures used are sufficiently lower than that necessary to cause particle melting or thermal softening of the selected particle. Therefore, as discussed above, no phase transition occurs in the particles prior to impingement. It has been found that each type of particle material has a threshold critical velocity that must be exceeded before the material begins to adhere to the substrate by the kinetic spray process.
One difficulty associated with all of these prior art kinetic spray systems arises from defects in the substrate surface. When the surface has an imperfection in it the kinetic spray coating may develop a conical shaped defect over the surface imperfection. The conical defect that develops in the kinetic spray coating is stable and can not be repaired by the kinetic spray process, hence the piece must be discarded. A second difficulty arises when the substrate is a softer plastic or a soft ceramic composite. These materials can not be coated by a kinetic spray process because the particles being sprayed bury themselves below the surface rather than deforming and adhering to the surface.
In one embodiment, the present invention is a method of coating a substrate comprising the steps of: providing particles of a material to be sprayed; providing a supersonic nozzle having a throat located between a converging region and a diverging region, directing a flow of a gas through the nozzle, and injecting the particles into the nozzle and entraining the particles in the flow of the gas; maintaining the gas at a temperature insufficient to heat the particles to a temperature at or above their melting temperature in the nozzle and accelerating the particles to a velocity sufficient to result in adherence of the particles on a substrate positioned opposite the nozzle; and maintaining the gas at a temperature sufficiently high to heat the particles to a temperature at or above their melting temperature in the nozzle thereby melting the particles and entraining the molten particles in the flow of the gas and directing the entrained molten particles at a substrate positioned opposite the nozzle.